Chapter Thirty-Four
Mia
I looked back and forth between the two dragon men.
“Is this news?” I asked, confused. “It’s your sister. Isn’t it, Ty?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “It is. She came back while you were gone. Found me all but passed out in your room.”
“And she didn’t kill you?” I asked, a little suspicious.
Tor’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Let him explain,” he rumbled, not appreciative of my tone.
I fell silent, though I wasn’t entirely sure why I was even questioning what had happened. It wasn’t my fight, wasn’t my issue to deal with. It was between the dragons. They could figure it out. All I wanted was to go home and try to move on from this. To forget Tor.
As if you could do that. His hand is on your shoulder still, by the way, and you haven’t made any effort to get him to move it. You like how it feels.
Angrily, I told myself I was well aware that I knew I liked how it felt.
That, in fact, was the problem! I didn’t want to risk letting myself get used to the feeling.
Tor might be under some misguided delusion that we were fated to be together, but I couldn’t afford to let myself get entangled with him like that. I had to focus on my safety.
Besides, there was my father to think about.
He’d just lost my mother. How would he react if I up and eloped with someone, leaving him alone?
Not to mention that I wasn’t even considering doing it with a human, but with a dragon in human form!
It was all too crazy and too much for me. I needed some normalcy in my life.
“She sent me a warning,” Ty said as I shifted out from under Tor’s arm.
“What sort of warning?”
“She assumed you would be dead,” he added. “But she said that if we didn’t announce her as the new Princess of Storms in three days' time, she would come after us all, one by one. Until there were none left to oppose her. It was her mercy, she called it.”
“So merciful,” I said, crossing my arms. “Well, at least you have an advantage, given she thinks Tor is dead. Maybe the two of you can use it to your advantage somehow.”
Ty glanced at Tor when I said “two.”
“Maybe,” Tor rumbled, ignoring the comment. “Three days, you said?”
Ty nodded.
“All right.”
I looked at him strangely. I didn’t want to get more involved, but the nonchalance was almost concerning. “All right? That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t seem concerned,” I said, wishing I could just keep my mouth shut and move on. I needed to go home.
Tor shrugged. “If she wants to give us three days to plot out how to deal with her, then she’s most welcome to it. I will make full use of that time and ensure she is dealt with properly and permanently. No mistakes.”
I shivered at the finality of his promise.
He meant he was going to kill her. I knew that, but hearing the deadly undertone was not something I thought I could ever get used to.
They weren’t humans, they were dragons, and I didn’t want to try to apply human law and morals to them, but he was still talking about killing his sister. That had to take a toll.
Do not go to him to console him. You can’t waver. Not now, not over this. Keep your distance.
“She must have a plan,” Ty said. “She’s strong, but not so strong that we couldn’t stop her if several of us tried. She must have something else up her sleeve.”
Tor nodded. “You’re probably right. Let me get Mia on her way. Then we’ll sit down and brainstorm just what sorts of things Rica will try to do.”
“I have one idea already,” Ty said, looking back and forth between us. “It has to do with the Vorgan.”
Tor immediately swayed closer to me as I shivered at the mention of the creature that had kidnapped me. It was just another reminder of why I needed to get away from that world where I did not belong.
“It’s dead,” Tor rumbled.
“I know. But, Tor, think about it. About what happened now versus the first time,” Ty said.
“It killed a lot of people both times,” Tor replied. “It nearly killed Mia this time, too.”
“But it didn’t kill me,” I said. “It didn’t try. It could have at any point, but it didn’t. That’s what you mean, isn’t it, Ty?”
“Yes!” he exclaimed, pointing at me. “It didn’t try to kill you. It kidnapped you. Took you with it.”
“Okay, so?”
“So, how did it know to do that?” Ty asked.
I frowned, feeling uneasy. “Are you saying she told it to kidnap me?”
“Vorgans are beasts,” Tor countered.
“Not this one,” Ty said. “She clearly gave it orders to take Mia. It was trained.”
“Trained?” Tor echoed. “How? There’s no way she could have smuggled it through when she was banished. A Vorgan would have attracted attention. It’s much too large.”
Ty shrugged. “I don’t know, but she got it through somehow, didn’t she?”
“What if it wasn’t a full-size Vorgan?” I put in.
“She shrunk it?” Ty asked. “We don’t have that sort of magic.”
“No, she didn’t shrink it,” Tor said, his gray eyes staring at me. “It just hadn’t grown. She brought an infant, or an egg, if that’s how they’re born. That’s what you mean, don’t you, Mia?”
I nodded. “You don’t train adult dogs if you can avoid it. You train them as puppies, so they don’t know any different.”
“A pet Vorgan,” Ty said, shaking his head. “At least it’s dead.”
“That one,” Tor said. “But I think this is her plan. She probably has more. Offspring of this one, perhaps, or maybe she brought more in. We don’t know a thing about how they reproduce.
But if she trained one to kidnap a target she set, then there’s no reason to think she can’t have trained them to do other things. We must be extremely careful.”
“Agreed.” Ty’s glance slid to me. “We don’t want to get caught alone.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“Ty …”
“Yep. Got it. I’m out of here,” Ty said, heading off, the other dragons going with him.
“I’m not staying here again,” I said, having figured out what Ty’s comment was. “Unless you force me.”
“I can’t force you to do anything, Mia,” Tor said gently, his eyes softening. “Much as I wish I could force you to see my logic if nothing else. But you are your own woman. I … I can’t protect you out there, though.”
“Am I your prisoner, then? Is that what you’re saying? You’re keeping me here against my will. Again?”
“No,” he said heavily. “Daylight is here now. You can travel freely, the Vorgan, if there are more, and likely my sister won’t be around. Come.”
We headed into the underground hallway and up the stairs to the main floor. Instead of heading for the door that would take us to the garage, however, he turned swiftly at the top of the stairs, showing me to one room in particular. His room.
“I’ve been here,” I said as he pushed the broken door open.
“I know. I remember,” he said.
I blushed at the memory of what we’d done in there such a short time ago.
My body burned just thinking of the things he’d done, the pleasure I’d experienced by his hands and mouth and from his long, hard cock as it penetrated me, filling me completely until I could take no more, whimpering and moaning as he stretched me more than I’d ever been before.
Yet he’d been a slow, sensual lover, building me up to the moment, letting my body get used to it. I’d never experienced anything like him before, and it had left me breathless then and was making me breathe harder now.
“I didn’t bring you here for that,” Tor said, dumping a bucket of water over my burgeoning arousal.
“Then why?” I asked, following him into the room, noting the sheets were still rumpled from the night before and that evidence of our … activities … was still stained on them.
Oops.
“To see this,” he said, pointing to one wall, where a full-length mirror rested.
“A mirror?”
“This is the Watching Mirror,” he said. “One of four created by the God-King and given to each clan to help the princes look after their territory, among other things.”
“Ah, the mirror that apparently said we’re meant to be together, is that it?” I asked.
He nodded. “Step in front of it. Tell me what you see.”
I look at him, then at the mirror.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want to look into your mirror. I don’t need to know what it might or might not say. You could have enchanted it, for all I know. Thank you, but I’d like to go home now, Tor.”
He started to protest but quieted when he saw my face.
“Very well,” he said a bit stiffly.
We left the room and headed to the garage in awkward silence.
I tried to ignore my churning stomach as we walked.
I didn’t want to be rude or mean, but I knew what I wanted.
Whatever I saw in that mirror, it wouldn’t change the fact that I had to leave it all behind for my own good.
What purpose was there in even looking? Nothing good would come of it.
“I don’t see my car,” I said, looking around. “Is it up front?”
“No idea,” Tor said, opening the key box on the wall near the entrance and tossing me a set.
I grabbed them. “What is this?”
“Take it,” he said.
I looked at the keys. The unique Chevrolet logo stared back at me.
It can’t be …
I hit the lock button, and off to my right, the ‘71 Chevelle beeped in recognition.
“You can have it,” he said with a shrug. “Hopefully, that will make you happy, at least.”
There was a heavy “even if I can’t” attached to that sentence. I stared at him, then at the keys, then the car, feeling a bit guilty. What the hell did I do? The cost of the car was nothing to him, but I didn’t think I could just accept him giving it to me.
“I will pay you,” I said.
“No, you won’t,” he said. “It’s yours. Take it. Take it and run. Drive as far away from me as you can. Until you aren’t afraid anymore.”
I jerked, stung by his comment. Not because he was wrong, but because it was too close to the truth, and he was calling me out on it.
“I will,” I said, storming over to the car, deciding to take advantage of his generosity after all. “And I’m never coming back.”
I got in, adjusted the seat and mirrors to suit a normal person's size, and turned the car on. It rumbled to life with a throaty roar that settled into an impressive purr. No wonder my mom had been “caught” by my dad when he drove it.
Putting the car in gear, I drove up the ramp, leaving Tor behind, just like I’d wanted and planned to, but with the added benefit of having the car to surprise my father.
So, why was I miserable?